How bad would it to be record audio directly into a smartphone?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I'm an audio newb. I see a lot of people using Zoom H1 or H4 as audio recorders for their lav mics and such. I'm wondering how bad would the audio be if I used an average lav mic and just used my Samsung S5 as the recording device. Would this be ok for basic stuff like web casts? What exactly would an external sound recorder add that would be missing from a smartphone?

 

[Alex H.]

It is possible to record rather good-quality sound onto a mobile device, but it requires the right interface. For Android, I'm not sure there's much of an option outside of plugging in through the 1/8" accessory port, which means you're relying on the phone as a pre-amp and as an A/D converter, both of which suck on mobile phones. With Apple, there are some fantastic options for Lightning interface.

With a dedicated sound recorder, depending on what you get, you'll have a device that does one thing and one thing only, and is focused on the quality of doing that one thing. Better A/D conversion, better (hopefully) pre-amps, better overall recording quality.

Using the analog in on your Samsung, you can expect a high noise floor and a bit of digital artifacting.

 

[OzGizmo]

A local TV network started to record press conferences with smart phones....Why not convenient, handy, audio good enough for a presser.....UNTILL a call comes through at the EXACT time the phone is under the nose of the Prime Minister of the country (ok it was on silent) but the incoming call cut off the recording.

Not good, do it properly use a dedicated recorder.

 

[doubledark]

A local TV network started to record press conferences with smart phones....Why not convenient, handy, audio good enough for a presser.....UNTILL a call comes through at the EXACT time the phone is under the nose of the Prime Minister of the country (ok it was on silent) but the incoming call cut off the recording.

Not good, do it properly use a dedicated recorder.

put the phone on airplane mode; calls won't come thru and recording won't be compromised

 

[Noiz2]

The bottom line is that it depends on what your expectations are. You can find people who think a phone is a great recorder, or video camera, and that is probably true... for them.

So as a recorder it's probably a good phone. Can you, yes. Should you?, maybe IF it fits what you want to do.

What you get with any tool that does just one thing is that it generally does it pretty well. People using portable recorders in lue of a wireless setup is a compromised setup. Going fot a more compromised setup is not a justification. BUT it still could work for you. So in a lot of ways it's more a question for you than others. What is your standard? That is not loaded, I do a lot of work for folks with very different standards and part of the gig is figuring out what the standard is for THIS gig.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

It is possible to record rather good-quality sound onto a mobile device, but it requires the right interface. For Android, I'm not sure there's much of an option outside of plugging in through the 1/8" accessory port, which means you're relying on the phone as a pre-amp and as an A/D converter, both of which suck on mobile phones. With Apple, there are some fantastic options for Lightning interface.

With a dedicated sound recorder, depending on what you get, you'll have a device that does one thing and one thing only, and is focused on the quality of doing that one thing. Better A/D conversion, better (hopefully) pre-amps, better overall recording quality.

Using the analog in on your Samsung, you can expect a high noise floor and a bit of digital artifacting.

I guess I want to know how bad could it possibly get?

I listen to FLAC on my S5 through some very expensive headphones. I can tell the difference between the headphone jack (using the onboard Samsung DAC) and using an external dedicated DAC via USB OTG.

But to be honest, the onboard DAC is not *that* bad. The quality is fine. Honestly, in most situations the quality of the headphones is the limiting factor. Getting good headphones accounts for maybe 80% of audio quality, followed by 10% for the DAC and the remaining 10% for file type and compression (the difference between 320kbps versus flac can sometimes be indiscernible or extremely minute even on $1,000 audio listening gear).

So if I were to use a decent lav mic and plug it in via the 3.5mm jack and use the onboard ADC with airplane mode on... is it really going to be that bad? I feel that the quality of the lav mic itself should be the limiting factor, followed by the ADC. My plan is just to get a cheap (but highly reviewed) mono lav mic to start off.

 

[Alex H.]

I listen to FLAC on my S5 through some very expensive headphones. I can tell the difference between the headphone jack (using the onboard Samsung DAC) and using an external dedicated DAC via USB OTG.

But to be honest, the onboard DAC is not *that* bad. The quality is fine. Honestly, in most situations the quality of the headphones is the limiting factor. Getting good headphones accounts for maybe 80% of audio quality, followed by 10% for the DAC and the remaining 10% for file type and compression (the difference between 320kbps versus flac can sometimes be indiscernible or extremely minute even on $1,000 audio listening gear).

Getting decent-to-good audio out for the user end is the easy part. There's a heck of a lot more engineering required to get good audio in for recording. Just because it flows fine coming out does not mean the same applies to incoming signals.

The USB OTG adapter may allow use of some decent USB audio interfaces for recording, but for portability your options become very limited to a small smattering of battery-operated devices. Plus, you're adding bulk that may get in the way if you're trying to get audio while shooting video on your phone.

But like Scott said, what's your benchmark of acceptability?

 

[davefisk]

The DPA d:vice (pronounced device) is really great for this, but it only works with iOS devices. It's an external pre and A/D converter. There's also a control app. It's quite impressive and if you have to record onto a phone, this is the way I'd go.

If you don't want to move to an iOS device, then you can use something like a Rode smart lav or a myriad of other Rode devices, but you are relying on the A/D of the phone at that point.

 

[IronFilm]

Meh, I use an Aputure A.Lav running straight into my phone for my vblogs. But that is just because I want something that is maximal quick & dirty for my vblogs to keep them a breeze (don't even edit before uploading to YT!). However it does depend on the cellphone, some are downright awful, others are kinda sorta "acceptable".

But would I ever advocate this for paid work? Hell no.

 

[ph2003]

Meh, I use an Aputure A.Lav running straight into my phone for my vblogs. But that is just because I want something that is maximal quick & dirty for my vblogs to keep them a breeze (don't even edit before uploading to YT!). However it does depend on the cellphone, some are downright awful, others are kinda sorta "acceptable".

But would I ever advocate this for paid work? Hell no.

I tried this setup with my pretty cheap samsung J1 ace, the quality and noise floor is very high compared to the A.Lav recorded into H1.
Will be upgrading to higher end phone S7 or Iphone6 will get lower noise floor?
(I am about to buy a new phone to using with Mavic, still cant decide I need an android or IOS.)

 

[Alex H.]

I tried this setup with my pretty cheap samsung J1 ace, the quality and noise floor is very high compared to the A.Lav recorded into H1.
Will be upgrading to higher end phone S7 or Iphone6 will get lower noise floor?
(I am about to buy a new phone to using with Mavic, still cant decide I need an android or IOS.)

I've recorded with a RØDE SmartLav+ and an iPhone 6 and the results were decent. Not pristine, but decent to the point that I have recommended it before to a video blogger.

The problem you might find now is that the iPhone 7 and above no longer offer the 1/8" TRRS accessory ports, and the ligthning dongle works only for headphones. This means that something like the A.Lav or the SmartLav+ are useless with anything iPhone 7 or above. I believe the 6S is still available, but then you're putting a much shorter shelf life onto your phone as the hardware will not keep up with the IOS for as long as the 7.

However, adding the IK Multimedia iRig Pro I/O opens up the use of any XLR-terminated mic, and the recording quality is rather good depending on the mic used.

In all, I have found the app offerings for IOS to be much better than with Android when it comes to audio and video apps. Filmic Pro is a must-have for iPhone, but I hear not-so-great things about the Android version.

 

[davefisk]

The problem you might find now is that the iPhone 7 and above no longer offer the 1/8" TRRS accessory ports, and the ligthning dongle works only for headphones. This means that something like the A.Lav or the SmartLav+ are useless with anything iPhone 7 or above.

I've used the SmartLav and the Rode Videomic and VideomicPro+ in my iPhone7+ using the Apple adapter. For the Videomics I had to use a Rode adapter cable that goes from TRRS to TRS, but it worked.

 

[Alex H.]

I've used the SmartLav and the Rode Videomic and VideomicPro+ in my iPhone7+ using the Apple adapter. For the Videomics I had to use a Rode adapter cable that goes from TRRS to TRS, but it worked.

That's really good to know. Even Apple advertises the dongle as only supporting headphones. I'd read several reviews that all mentioned input was not an option. Been doing a lot of reading up since my iPhone 6 is due for an upgrade, and I'll be going with 7 or 8. So I'm glad to know that the dongle works for SMartLav+ (though, I have an iRig Pro so my mic options are wide open).

 

[IronFilm]

I tried this setup with my pretty cheap samsung J1 ace, the quality and noise floor is very high compared to the A.Lav recorded into H1.
Will be upgrading to higher end phone S7 or Iphone6 will get lower noise floor?
(I am about to buy a new phone to using with Mavic, still cant decide I need an android or IOS.)

Oh funny, I've been using my Aputure A.Lav with a Samsung J2 for my vblogs:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCniNTuAtkFiSCQNfIaw9SJw/videos

 

[ph2003]

I've recorded with a RØDE SmartLav+ and an iPhone 6 and the results were decent. Not pristine, but decent to the point that I have recommended it before to a video blogger.

The problem you might find now is that the iPhone 7 and above no longer offer the 1/8" TRRS accessory ports, and the ligthning dongle works only for headphones. This means that something like the A.Lav or the SmartLav+ are useless with anything iPhone 7 or above. I believe the 6S is still available, but then you're putting a much shorter shelf life onto your phone as the hardware will not keep up with the IOS for as long as the 7.

However, adding the IK Multimedia iRig Pro I/O opens up the use of any XLR-terminated mic, and the recording quality is rather good depending on the mic used.

In all, I have found the app offerings for IOS to be much better than with Android when it comes to audio and video apps. Filmic Pro is a must-have for iPhone, but I hear not-so-great things about the Android version.

Thanks, I look into Filmic Pro.

Oh funny, I've been using my Aputure A.Lav with a Samsung J2 for my vblogs:

This setup is "okay", my concern is "Is IOS really has lower noise floor than Android?"
I was getting around -65db of noise scanned in audition RMS Histogram with the total silence recording.

anyone actually tested my noise floor for both platform? I cant find any info on the net. (Maybe they are about equal so people dont even care to test it? )

 

[IronFilm]

anyone actually tested my noise floor for both platform? I cant find any info on the net. (Maybe they are about equal so people dont even care to test it? )

Nah, the difference between operating systems between the two would make up only a small factor (or none!) when it comes to the noise floor of each.

What matters instead is the hardware underneath it.

And while there have been many versions of the iPhone, there are many many **MANY** more hardware versions of cellphones running android!! So you can't realistically expect all those many variations to be tested and compared with each other.

 

[ph2003]

Nah, the difference between operating systems between the two would make up only a small factor (or none!) when it comes to the noise floor of each.

What matters instead is the hardware underneath it.

And while there have been many versions of the iPhone, there are many many **MANY** more hardware versions of cellphones running android!! So you can't realistically expect all those many variations to be tested and compared with each other.

Yea I know, its a hardware problems, so generally iphone is better? coz its only made by one company. Thats why some good apps like "Rode Rec" only for IOS

 

[IronFilm]

Nah, I wouldn't say iPhone is better, as the greater competition between the hardware brands for Android means they push the hardware further and faster ahead.